Sonesta Miami Airport — Hotel in Miami

Went up to the hotel desk and had to get the attention of the front design associate, Bern, who was cleaning his phone and not paying any attention to me. After cleaning his phone he went to the computer and asked me what I wanted. Wow, terrible customer service. Anyways, I asked him if he could find my reservation that I made on Priceline a minute ago and he said he didn’t see it in the system and I should try back in a hour. I went outside and called the reservations team for the hotel directly. They were able to locate the reservation and gave me a confirmation number for their hotel with an email. I went back inside and asked him if he could look it up with the number and he refused to even type it in the system!! After asking again and mentioning I received an email, he typed the number in and said he couldn’t find it. A lady named Francina was now at the desk and said she was the manager. She looked up my reservation through Priceline but could not find it either. Sounded like a delay on Sonesta’s end and this was something I had no control over, but Francina kept blaming me. I called the reservations team again and told them the issue. 45 min had passed, and I was very aggravated. I am 4 months pregnant and was feeling very sick and Francina nor Bern cared or had any alternative solutions for check-in. They even said it would be EXTRA to check in early…The reservation team member on the phone named Jody was very helpful and booked me a room directly through them. When I went back to the front desk and told them I re-booked a room directly through them they told me they could not find the second reservation. At this point I wanted a refund from Priceline because I had two reservations they could not find. I was on the phone back and forth with Priceline for an hour trying to resolve this. Bern was very rude to my mother who came in from the car to help me out and rolled his eyes at her continuously. He treated her very passive aggressively and ignored the both of us. The other guests got treated differently who arrived during the time we were sitting in the lobby trying to get this resolved. I will never return here based solely on the customer service and the supervisor needs way more training on empathy. I wanted to speak to another manager but she refused to allow me and said she was the only one. I asked for corporate’s number for the inconvenience and she told me 1-800 Sonesta. Is this even accurate? I ended up booking at FAIRFIELD MARRIOTT across the street. Way less stress, they found my booking online INSTANTLY, and they let me do an early check...

Horrible attempted check-in experience with the Reception Staff this morning at 10 am after an overnight flight. I arrived as arranged via my employer. The desk agent was unkind, uninformed, wrong, and generally just in the wrong business. She lacked the hospitality gene - shame on her. She basically dismissed me before I even approached the counter. I called to confirm my reservation with port ops. On a positive note, the shuttle driver was kind and a total professional - he even extended assistance after I was rudely dismissed from reception #SonestaMiamiAirportFail 🤬

Response to FOM: Hi Agsel,

And thanks for the reply.

My time has value and how others elect to treat me has value (good or bad, I can use the information and experience to make sound personal and business decisions). The reality is I will never use my personal or professional time to call on Sonesta Miami Airport again. Below are five reasons:

Because your team member was being a little extra... “We don’t have any rooms.” “Who are you?” “Who sent you?” “Why are you here?” “We don’t have a reservation for you.”

Every time the agent at the desk began to speak, they had an opportunity to do the right thing; this is where Accountability, Awareness, and Authenticity come into play. She elected not to be accountable each time. She selected to fail to be aware of what was happening Or what should happen each time. What I did get was her authentic performance. The curt, dismissive behavior resulted in me sitting out front of this property on the phone, securing alternate accommodations with early check-in on a Saturday morning. The resulting car hire, as well as other out-of-pocket expenses and lost time, and the unnecessary brain damage first thing in the morning.

Your extension of apologies and expressing your disappointment is appreciated. However, the offer to give the property another opportunity when I'm the one doing the work isn't realistic. And simply put, it won't happen. I will tell friends, family, and colleagues about my experience and let them make their own decisions.

You want my business; you’ll need to do much better than that. Sonesta can start by honoring the arrangements and then infuse some consistent hospitality with every...

This is without a doubt, the worst hotel experience I have ever had. Every day the key cards never worked; for the room, elevator and parking. I would have to go to the front desk daily to have this problem fixed. A few hours after check-in one of the hotel managers (seemed Indian) came to my room accusing of us smoking when there was absolutely no smoking going on in the room. He was very rude and loud as well. It took me the rest of my stay (3 nights) to solve this problem, having spoke to a manager and had to have her send a security guard to my room to check it out for themselves. The security guard said "smells like you guys sprayed something to cover it up" when the only thing sprayed was cologne when getting ready. (The hotel rooms smell musty to begin with). It took me multiple trips to the front desk to get this problem fixed. On top of that, my room didn't even have a fridge. Seriously, not even a fridge but they wanted to charge me $200 to "provide guests with the same experience they hope to give everybody else". Not all Crowne Plazas are bad, but this one may be one of the worst high end hotels around the airport. The Crowne Plaza by the Fort Myers airport is much much more professional and courteous. I am a manager at my own place of business, and the way I was treated by the manager who came to my room was appalling, any other place would do some form of counseling for said employee. But I am sure nobody will even speak to this man, or if he is the general manager, will not think before his next interaction with guests. I was very close to calling the police over the smoking fee incident as in the very least, it was an attempt to steal money from me with no due reason, especially with it taking my entire stay for the problem to be resolved. This is a hotel where if they see young colored people, they will be judged and treated differently from the guests I am sure they usually see. (Speaking about the security guard and the manager who came to my room the first day specifically). I recommend everybody stays at the Hyatt Place instead, much more respectful and better service, and they don't charge for parking, and standard rooms have a fridge...